Tag Archives: Magnify Your Voice

As an aspiring writer, you’re far from being alone. In fact, you’re really just one voice saying “pick me!” in a chorus of thousands. Not the greatest odds, huh? Still, people turn them in their favor all the time by marketing themselves well enough to entice publishers to their cause.

It’s proof positive that selling yourself first matters. Keep reading and keep the following in mind and you can magnify your voice, too.

1. You don’t have an audience.
Veritable unknowns are a publisher’s worst friend. Their low sales potential makes them a huge risk to undertake, and whenever one shows up with a book in hand and a smile on their face, the publisher’s first instinct favors rejection. You fall into that category, and without an audience of your own (no, your network of family, friends and colleagues won’t fly) you might never overcome its obstacles.

Those who roll up their pants and wade into the deep waters of their target market to sell themselves first, however, have much more luck charming the contract out of a publisher.

2. Your competition is more noticeable than you are.
There are bunches of people out there who are trying to write to the same audience as you are. Some of them are already well-known to their market, too, hosting popular blogs, frequenting key forums and making names for themselves. Oh, and they’re quite possibly pitching their books to the same publishers and agents you’re pursuing.

Now, would you sign the writer who is noticeably present or the one who you’ve never heard of before?
Exactly. By selling yourself first, you will earn the upper hand over your competitors.

3. Your book can only build a certain amount of momentum on its own.
Books aren’t magical money makers. They can only sell so much on the merit of their contents before you have to infuse them with a few extra doses of momentum. Try to do that without a loyal audience and you’ll find yourself falling well short of your goals. Why? Simple. You need people to carry the marketing torch for you and nobody’s going to do that for a total stranger. Loyalty matters so, so much and the best way to earn it by selling yourself early in the writing/publishing process.
In the end, writers will never sell as well as personalities do. Become a personality before you’re published and you’ll be writing yourself as the loveable, supportable protagonist of your story.